The much-anticipated 2012 Great American Beer Festival kicks off today, and beer aficionados are revving their engines.

The event, which began in 1982, has grown in popularity and this year, 578 breweries will pour more than 2,700 beers at the fest. Held at the Colorado Convention Center, it showcases diverse craft beers.

It’s good to see such enthusiasm, but we hope it will be tempered with wisdom when it comes to making the decision about whether to drive home.

The record-speed sellout for the Great American Beer Festival underscores shows just how much Coloradans love their craft beer.

All 49,000 tickets to the three-day festival in October were gone in 45 minutes.

There was grousing and concern about scalpers scooping up tickets, but the bottom line, it seems, is that the appetite for tickets truly is a function of an affinity for craft beer. Apparently, a lot of people will drink to that.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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